Putting your files in the trash and then emptying the trash is not very secure, as you suspect. There are programs ($$$$$) that will do the job, but why spend the money for a one-time thing?
If it were my personal financial files, here's what I'd do:
1) Erase all of my personal financial files I could find.
2) Copy the entire contents of the hard drive to an external hard drive, or DVD, or via firewire (if you've got it) to another Mac.
3) Erase the iMac's hard drive, then reformat it and write zeros at least three times, then initialize it in its original format (HFS+).
4) Finally, I would copy the contents of the external drive back to the iMac, and thank the owner for letting you borrow it.
Jim
On Mar 20, 2005, at 6:04 PM, Amber wrote:
Hi,
I need to delete some files permanently from an iMac I have been borrowing. They were personal financial files and I do not want the owner to have access to them.
I am pretty sure that just putting the files in the trash and emptying it is not really that secure. Is there anyway to be sure that these files could not be "undeleted" or retrieved without erasing the hard drive or zeroing it out ?
Amber
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